The National Association of Attorneys General also is urging the incoming administration to make preemption a top issue. Doing so will go hand-in-hand with dealing with some of the other pressing problems facing the nation, according to the top legal officials of the 50 states, the District of Columbia and the nation’s territories.

“In the current, failing economy, with housing prices plunging, and the number of foreclosures soaring, it is critical that the state Attorneys General continue to be the ’56 cops on the beat’ and be given the necessary regulatory authority to impose appropriate standards on lending institutions,” states a briefing paper released yesterday by NAAG describing its agenda for the new administration.

“State Attorneys General have traditionally resisted federal preemption of state laws, whether by Congress, the Courts or the Executive Branch,” the paper states. “Rather, state Attorneys General have supported a more pure federalism, a dual sovereignty whereby state governments and the federal government each retain and actively exercise the powers and functions of government at the same time.”